Salaam-E-Ishq

Producer : Sunil Manchanda, Mukesh Talreja,Nikhil Advani
Director : Nikhil Advani
Starring : Salman Khan,Priyanka Chopra,Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Akshaye Khanna, Ayesha Takia,John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Govinda, Shannon Esra, Sohail Khan,Isha Koppikar, Aroon Bakshi,Anjana Sukhani
Music : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Sameer

Salaam-E-Ishq tells a promisingly epic tale of six couples. Oblivious to one another and separated by miles of distance, they are tested by life’s two eyes: Tribulation and Success. Yet somehow, through destiny and fate, these six couples are brought together by the unturned phenomenon of love’

Actress Kkamini (Priyanka Chopra) wakes up to yet another scandalous story. It is these very stories that she blames her inability to land a lead role on. She’s finally fed up and has conjured a plan that will have the producers and directors looking her way. It’s a plan that will save her career in every sense. However, there’s a detour in her map when she unexpectedly runs into Mr. Rahul (Salman Khan).

He has the idle life in his grasp. Surrounded by a cozy little home in London, and cared for by his loving wife Seema (Juhi Chawla) and two daughters, Vinay Malhotra (Anil Kapoor) has it all, including a flashy PR job. Things couldn’t be any better. Enter Anjali (Anjana Sukhani). Anjali is a woman from a different land, over-confident and self-centered, she is used to getting whatever her heart desires. And it’s Vinay who she pines for’

Tehzeeb (Vidya Balan) and Ashutosh (John Abraham) are the idle young couple. With the warmth of love still glowing bright in their hearts, Ashu and Tehzeeb are truly in love with one another in every which way. Living in Mumbai, the pair had eloped and got married a couple years back and is currently struggling to make a decent living, nothing out of the ordinary really. Both share the same workplace at a news station; she a field report, while he a film editor. But as the trend of Salaam-E-Ishq continues on, Tehzeeb is put through a tribulation of her own, which will put Ashu’s love to the definitive test.

Raju Taxiwala (Govinda) is the true happy-go-lucky, no complaint kind of guy. For the past fifteen years he’s been following a single routine: Drive his beloved taxi from his home in Chandni Chowk to the New Delhi Airport to join the ever-increasing line of taxi drivers vying for every passenger who walks out the doors. But Raju has no complaints about his dreary working life. He joins the line of drivers with a smile on his face, hoping that any day his true love, Stephanie (Shannon Esrechowitz), will walk out of those doors – a vision he’s kept for the past fifteen years. And as fate would have it, Shannon does return. But her eyes search for someone else’her boyfriend Rohit Chaddha (Kushal Punjabi).

New Delhi’s most accomplished bachelor, Shiven (Akshay Khanna), is about to lose the freedom he has come to cherish. He’s scheduled to marry Gia (Ayesha Takia) in ten days. Suffocation begins to thwart Shiven to the extents that he’s having nightmares of his soon-to-be married life. In a rushed attempt to break free of the what-seems-to-be burden, Shiven breaks off the engagement, leaving a hurtful scar on the heart of Gia. But with every passing day, hour, minute, and then second, Shiven begins to realize how difficult it is to live life without the company of Gia. His loneliness causes him to realize that his life is incomplete without her’

Rustom Dastoor (Sohail Khan) is a lower-middle class parsi who is a newly married man. He wants to spend the rest of his life fulfilling his long-awaited desires with his new bride, Dolly Dastoor (Isha Koppikar). However, whenever Rustom and Dolly wish to engage in the timeless act of love, something always puts a damper on their fun. Rustom and Dolly are swept up in a tale that culminates with a tragically fated end.

Salaam-E-Ishq is nothing short of a magnum opus by Nikhil Advani, who’s debut in Kal Ho Na Ho was a blockbusting one. Many things make Salaam-E-Ishq well worth waiting for. Firstly, the pioneering plot is sure to capture the wonderment of critics and masses alike. Another reason is a stellar cast that we rarely ever get to see (yes, even YRF films aren’t enlaced in such star-studded glamour). And finally it is Nikhil Advani’s first truly independent film, since he has now split from the Dharma camp. Many may not know, but Nikhil Advani was the assistant director to Karan Johar in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, and was also believed to have been the mastermind behind them. And even though Johar’s latest film, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, is the one to have broken overseas B.O. records, it was the one film of Johar’s that critics and masses alike say faltered in terms of content. This could have very easily been caused by the absence of Nikhil Advani by Karan’s side.

Pick whichever reason you may, Salaam-E-Ishq is sure to kick-start 2007 with some rocking fun. Oh and I would also like to mention that Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music for the film has recently released to fantastic reviews. And although it may not be the trio’s best work, it is certainly redemption time for them, as their previous works in Don and KANK were unexpectedly sub-par.

So here’s to a film, somewhat unique in its style, that promises to relive the magic of romance; a film that serves to pay tribute to the timeless affair we all carry with the enchanting phenomenon of love.